China’s Shanghai Petrochemical shuts ACN plant for maintenance

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--China’s Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical on 20 November shut down its 130,000 tonne/year acrylonitrile (ACN) plant in Shanghai for annual maintenance, a company source said on Friday.

The company was supposed to start maintenance at the ACN plant on 15 November, but the shutdown was delayed for five days, the source added, without revealing the exact reason.

The ACN plant will be off line for 35 days and will be restarted around 25 December, the source said.

The shutdown of the ACN plant is likely to have little influence on China’s spot market, because of the current supply and demand conditions, a market player said.

Domestic prices were at yuan (CNY) 13,000-13,100/tonne ($2,135-2,151/tonne) ex-tank east China on 21 November, down by CNY900/tonne compared with 1 November, on ample supply and lacklustre downstream demand, according to Chemease, an ICIS service in China.

Shanghai Petrochemical also owns a 139,000 tonne/year downstream acrylic fibre (AF) plant comprising three separate lines at the same site as the ACN plant. Two of the AF lines were shut down on 20 November for maintenance, the source said.